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She can't help it if six eyes are staring her down.
"Did it turn you on? Watching her up there in front of all those brainiacs knowing she was the smartest one in the room?"
Lilah Morgan, Angel

Geeks and nerds often have it rough in the romance department, especially in popular culture. Typically, they are stereotyped as being so unattractive that only fellow nerds would find them desirable mates. However, it is interest and intellect that makes the nerd, not looks. And for some folks, intelligence is very, very attractive.

Other names for this trope would be sapiosexual, scisexual, and cognisexual.

This trope shows what happens when a character finds that a nerd is, indeed, sexy. The nerd's "objective" looks could fall anywhere within the wide spectrum of human attractiveness; all that matters is that a character finds something about the nerd that arouses their interest.

Compare Endearingly Dorky, where characters are charmed by dorks (who may or may not be nerds as well). See also Hot Librarian, Geeky Turn-On, Bespectacled Cutie, Glasses Are Sexy, Nerdcore, Lovable Nerd and Give Geeks a Chance. Racial/nerd tropes like Jewish and Nerdy and Asian and Nerdy are examples of ethnicities associated with intelligence.

Only add examples that are acknowledged in-universe.


In-Universe Examples Only:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Charlie, the IT guy from the series of AT&T wireless network commercials, who finds a way to make cheesy pick-up lines his own.
    Charlie: So...did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?
    Secretary: [giggles and blushes] A little.
  • A 2009 Intel commercial featured a male office worker freshening his cup of coffee. Semi-porn background music can be heard. All the women are staring hungrily at this guy, who sees it but acts too cool to respond to it, like this is normal for him. At the end, a voice over identifies this normal-looking nerd as the inventor of the USB port. (He was actually just an actor, but it gets the job done.)

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Asteroid in Love, Mira took an interest in Ao due to the latter's passion for astronomy, or, in other words, Ao being an astronomy geek. While the current relationship between the two is rather ambiguous, Mira originally had a crush on Ao because Mira mistook Ao for a boy.
  • In Black Lagoon, Jane makes out with Benny immediately after Benny showed off his hacking skills.
  • Richard from The Case Files of Jeweler Richard is the most attractive human being Seigi has ever seen and draws incredible attention from everyone... but he reads grammar books for fun and has a master's degree from Cambridge.
  • Professor Kiyama Harumi from A Certain Scientific Railgun, and she is thought of as this even before she started stripping in public... again.
  • Even Dragon Ball runs into this, as a number of girls in Orange Star High (particularly Erasa) spend much of their screen time in the anime trying to undress Son Gohan with their eyes. Jerk Jock Sharpener isn't very pleased to learn that he's runner up to "Nerd-Boy".
  • This trope has been played with in Gundam Build Fighters:
    • Subverted with Tatsuya Yuuki who's the typical popular guy in school. However, his fangirls see his Gunpla obsession as his only major flaw... that is until he pulls off a Curb-Stomp Gunpla Battle against the protagonist's model kit.
    • Invoked by Kirara, whose extensive knowledge of gunplas and the Gundam 'verse in general cause Sei to outright swoon over her. It later turns out that he just REALLY liked her as a fellow Gundam otaku.
    • Played completely and utterly straight with Ricardo Fellini, who almost hooked a date with a Victory Gundam model kit.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya: Immediately following the Ryoko incident, Kyon let it slip that he has a glasses fetish, when he tried to hide it by telling Yuki she looked cuter without them. Despite her confusion, she takes him at his word and goes without them for the remainder of the series.
  • Highschool of the Dead: While Saya is undeniably cute and has a stunning figure, Hirano doesn't become attracted to her until he finds out she wears glasses. She even caught him perving on her, in chapter 5, and booted him for it. He's clearly shown being awestruck and turned on by just how smart she is.
  • Kobachi Osaragi from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War looks rather nerdy at first glance, with her large Opaque Nerd Glasses and conservative uniform, but she's actually considered to be one of (if not the) hottest girls in the entire school.
  • Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Frederica Greenhill had been carrying the torch for the socially awkward Yang Wenli ever since she first met him.
  • Played with in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt as while Brief isn't considered attractive by Panty or Stocking at first and they don't generally care about him, in episode 12 when Brief pulls back his hair, Panty has him as a Love Interest and attempts to have sex with him at first only to fail due to Brief being Bigger Is Better in Bed, but they succeed later on.
  • Ami Mizuno from Sailor Moon is somewhat popular among her peers for her looks and brains, she got a love letter in a side story although she didn't react very well to it. This is more present in the anime.
    • In real life, Ami is the most popular character in Japan, maybe only after Sailor Moon herself.
    • Although Umino is a more stereotypical nerd, in a manga chapter featuring a princess who looked just like him but turned to be really beautiful without her glasses, Usagi Rei and Ami wondered if Umino would look hot without them too. This was confirmed by Word of God.
  • Taken to the extreme as the premise of The World God Only Knows. Keima Katsuragi is a proud nerd who spends all his time playing video games and prefers 2D girls over real girls. Yet his vast knowledge of Dating Sims has made him an expert at getting girls to fall in love with him (in order for him to exorcise the evil spirits possessing them... It Makes Sense in Context!), all the while remaining an unrepentant otaku. Not to mention he is pretty good looking and dresses pretty properly. It's hinted that a lot of the girls are impressed by his defiance of authority, even if the defiance comes through geeky activities that they don't really approve of.

    Comic Books 
  • Cherry Comics: Ellie Dee, who manages to nail the science teacher all of the girls are lusting after.
  • This is practically the mission statement behind Gold Digger, a comic about Gina Diggers a really hot, really ... "friendly" woman who's also a bespectacled supergenius, and her friends, many of whom are just as hot and almost as smart as she is (though they're generally less nerdy).
  • The Incredible Hulk: Amadeus Cho, the 7th smartest person on Earth (as verified by a soap company - oh, and Reed Richards), who managed to win the heart of a Perky Goth Amazon Gorgon girl.
  • Spider-Man: Peter Parker is a science geek and somewhat socially awkward, but none of this has stopped him from being a Chick Magnet. And he became positively handsome as the years went by.
  • Superman: Believe it or not, Clark Kent, at least post-crisis. Ever since Clark allowed more of his real personality to show through, the Midwestern farmboy is every bit a Chick Magnet as good 'ol Peter Parker. Some such as Cat Grant, were explicitly attracted to Clark Kent, and not Superman. Of course, being built like the Man of Steel couldn't have hurt, despite everything he does to downplay those looks.
    • It actually goes further back then that. Despite his dorky outward appearance, people forget that he was also the star quarterback of the football team, the Homecoming King, and dated Lana Lang, the Cheerleading Captain, Homecoming Queen, and by all accounts the most beautiful girl at Smallville High.

    Comic Strips 
  • After finding out about this, FoxTrot's Jason Fox once tried to make himself as un-nerdy as possible because Girls Have Cooties.

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm
    • Peter Parker, who is mentioned as being "kind of hot" once he loses the glasses and becomes more confident after the events of the Bloody Hell arc in Book Two.
    • This trope is zig-zagged in the case of Hermione. While definitely a nerd, and said to be quite pretty (increasingly resembling her famously beautiful biological mother, Wanda Maximoff, closely enough that people start noticing), it doesn't get much focus because most of the story is from Harry's POV, and he and Hermione are Like Brother and Sister.
  • In An Insecure Violet, Kyoka finds her boyfriend, Izuku, to be pretty handsome despite his nerdy and plain appearance. It also helps that he's pretty ripped and is always ready to see him shirtless.
  • The Last Prayer: Mabui's attracted to intelligence, even referring to herself as sapiosexual. Intelligence is such a turn on for her that her first love had been an overweight man thirty years her senior who was a university professor. When Naruto starts teaching her seals, she gets aroused by his knowledge, particularly because she has two doctorates and yet he makes her feel like a young student all over again. Naruto later exploits this by using sealing Technobabble as dirty talk.
  • In My Huntsman Academia, Izuku quickly becomes a Clueless Chick-Magnet thanks to being one of the ripped guys in his year and his warm, friendly personality. His tendency to ramble on and on as a self-professed "super nerd" does nothing to detract from his status as "the sexiest dork at Beacon".
  • In the Total Drama fic Three Tests of Valor Lindsay, a gorgeous curvaceous blonde is head over heels in love with Harold, an expy of Napoleon Dynamite not in spite of being a massive dork, but because of it. She tells him that she's 'always' been more attracted to nerds than the jocks her friends told her she should like.

    Film — Animated 
  • Belle from Beauty and the Beast is viewed as "odd" by the other townspeople because she's a woman who likes to read. That doesn't stop her from being the most beautiful girl in her village, which they (reluctantly) acknowledge.
  • In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Flint's attraction to Sam stems mostly from the times her Obfuscating Stupidity slips and she starts spouting fancy terms like "elastic bio-polymer adhesive".
  • A Goofy Movie has Stacey, a student council girl with glasses and braces who acquires no fewer than two admirers (Bobby and one of the unnamed Star Trek nerds) through the course of the movie. The sequel has Sylvia Marpole, a librarian and Fangirl, whom Goofy falls head over heels for.
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Discussed by Aaron when talking with his nephew Miles about his new school, a prep academy for gifted teenagers. He certainly seems to believe in this trope, asking if he's met anyone he likes yet, commenting that "smart girls are where it's at."

    Film — Live-Action 
  • American Pie's Nadia is established to be attracted to geeks. The only reason Jim doesn't get with her in the first movie is that he's too nervous with her. Despite this, she tries it on with him in the second movie, only for him to eventually rebuff her when he realises how he feels about Michelle, who is herself quite geeky. Nadia has to make do with Sherman at the party. In fact, the last film implies that Nadia is not completely over Jim.
  • And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird!: Beth is attracted to Josh specifically because he's a computer/robotics genius.
  • There is a scene in a used bookshop in The Big Sleep: Humphrey Bogart spends an afternoon in an antiquarian bookshop with the clerk (Dorothy Malone). An unexpected rainstorm, a bottle of rye, and the line "I'd rather get wet in here", transforms Malone from book-worm to babe, who closes the shop an hour early (and the film fades to black).
  • The Girl Next Door's diffident, gangly Klitz (Paul Dano) is a member of the protagonist's clique of nerds, but meets a porn star who finds him highly attractive and it is hinted that he becomes one himself.
  • Glass Onion: The suave, well-dressed, and handsome Dr. Lionel Toussaint. His friend Birdie comments that he's too good-looking to be a scientist.
  • In How to Marry a Millionaire, Marilyn Monroe's character avoids wearing much-needed glasses as long as she can to retain her beauty. When her love interest finally persuades her to put them on, he immediately says, "You're crazy."
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Spencer is a self-described teenage nerd who gets Trapped in TV Land as his video game avatar, the muscular Ace Dr. Smolder Bravestone. When he confesses his feelings to Martha and admits his anxiety over returning to the real world, she tells him that she's not interested in his over-the-top video game persona but really likes him as a nerd. They get a Relationship Upgrade at the end.
  • Darla, the band nerd from My Best Friend is a Vampire - once she takes her glasses (and possibly a dorky hat) off, she's hot, though only the male lead sees it at first.
  • Mean Girls's Miss Norbury, Kevin, and Cady. Part of Cady's conflict is that she dumbs herself down to get a cute boy to tutor her.
  • Not Another Teen Movie has Janie who is supposedly nerdy even though all she really does is paint, wear overalls, wear glasses, and has a ponytail.
  • Betty Childs can't help falling for Louis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds, once she discovers his sexual prowess.
  • Despite being a tough gangster moll, Honey Swanson in A Song Is Born can't help falling for nerdy Hobart Frisbee.
  • Tanguy is a nerdy intellectual but he manages to chat up attractive girls (mostly Asian ones) with ridiculous ease.
  • Amy in Time After Time is attracted by the nerdy H. G. Wells character.
  • 16-year-old Ally Hayden in T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous definitely looks hot.
  • In X-Men: First Class, Charles Xavier has mastered the art of transforming his knowledge of genetics into successful flirtation methods.

    Literature 
  • Bennett keeps hitting on the somewhat nerdy, glasses-wearing socialist Tommy Judd in Another Country, whom he claims to be the only guy in college to be immune to his charms.
  • Fiore from Moony Witcher's La Bambina Della Sesta Luna ("The Girl of the Sixth Moon") is a typical know-all, with special interest in history and Latin (she really likes to show her knowledge of Latin phrases). At the same time, she's beautiful, romantic and sometimes demonstrates a sense of humor. Given that Fiore means "flower" in Italian, this seems to be a case of Meaningful Name.
  • Invoked in a drawing that appears on the back cover of Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon:
    [the back cover summary describes Wendell as being nerdy]
    Wendell: I must take exception to this "nerdy" label that's been so callously applied to my character.
    Danny Dragonbreath: Oh, relax, Wendell. Girls totally dig nerds.
  • In The Hunt for Red October, it is stated that Jones, the sonar technician of the USS Dallas, because of his nerdy looks and knowledge, gets enough action on the beach to "wear down a squad of marines".
  • The Martian: Beth Johannesen is the computer specialist on ARES 3, and has a double doctorate in computer science and electrical engineering. She is also repeatedly referred to as extremely attractive; her poster is the best-selling piece of NASA merch ever, and according to Venkat decorates every teenage nerd in the world's bedroom wall.
  • Joseph Carrion in the Mediochre Q Seth Series doesn't seem that nerdy next to Mediochre, but he's still a Pop-Cultured Badass, university professor, scientist and former Teen Genius, and is described as well-built and handsome.
  • Richard, the engineer, wins Nicole's heart this way in Rama II. As a nerd, he works out how to hack into Rama's sensor feeds to visualise the weapons as they approach in the finale. He also comes up with a graphic display to show to the avian aliens in their enclosure in order to convince them to carry himself and Nicole across the cylindrical sea. As a child he also had a thing for Shakespeare, which he channels now into lifelike, shape-changing robots based on Shakespear's characters. On a few occasions he uses them as survey drones, and the first vision of the octospiders comes through one of them. Nicole herself engineers her way out of certain situations; this is what she likes about Richard though, and he does it better than her.
  • Lissa Dragomir from Vampire Academy has model-like looks but Rose refers to her as a nerd for taking advanced calculus as a class, and acing all her tests.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Fitz and Simmons both have their dorky moments, and each one is attracted to the other's intellect. At one point they compare their growing desire for each other to the concept of "the singularity in transhumanism".
    Simmons: Just to be clear... are you comparing us sleeping together to crossing the event horizon?
    Fitz: Yeah.
    Simmons: It's quite lovely when you think about it like that.
  • Angel:
    • The spin-off series has Fred (Winifred), the nerdy yet cute science girl who joined the cast late in the second season. During the third season, her sexy nerdiness had Wesley and Gunn fighting over her for half the season. This was lampshaded in the famous scene in "Apocalypse Nowish" where Lilah Morgan dresses up in Nerd Glasses and Girlish Pigtails to taunt Wesley over his attraction to Fred.
      Lilah: Did it turn you on? Watching her up there in front of all those brainiacs knowing she was the smartest one in the room?"
    • Played with briefly when David Nabbit gives Angel financial advice in "First Impressions".
      David: Oh. That's easy. You could look into seller financing, take over the owner's payments and skip the bank completely, or you could make a play for a preservation grant. Offer to restore the original décor and get the city and the feds to give you a tax break and a loan at a sweetheart rate. Or you could apply for an FHA and get a PMI in lieu of a down payment.
      [everyone stares]
      Cordelia: Is anybody else getting warm? Do that 'tax breaks,' FHA and PMI part again.
  • Arrowverse:
    • Arrow has Felicity Smoak, the Oracle to Oliver Queen's Batman. She is tech savvy and innovative enough to thoroughly impress the crew at Star Labs in the first of a few crossovers with The Flash (2014) and if it wasn't apparent already, the Little Black Dress she rocks on a double date with Barry, Iris and Eddie seals it- the woman is a FOX. Very telling is the fact that besides her brief flirtation with Barry Allen, she's had both Oliver(Arrow) and Ray Palmer (Atom,) two billionaire superheroes, in love with her almost from the word go.
    • Ray himself counts. His Tall, Dark, and Handsome appearance, intelligence, and love for Doctor Who were all reasons Felicity listed as to why he was practically the perfect man. He's a contender for the nerdiest character in the Arrowverse, played by an actor who once portrayed Superman. That in itself should indicate how much he qualifies.
    • Cisco in The Flash (2014) is no slouch in the department himself. Lisa Snart even outright says "smart is sexy" when he gives her the name Golden Glider, and it's repeatedly shown that she genuinely finds him charming.
    • Clark Kent, as noted above—he's a total dork who is dating (later married to) Lois Lane, Cat Grant almost literally drools all over him, Lena Luthor flirts with him a little, and Alex Danvers (who comes out as lesbian later in the season) thinks he smells terrific.
  • In Beauty and the Geek, just about every season one or two of the Beauties would wind up hooking up with one or two of the Geeks.
  • This is pretty much the entire point to The Big Bang Theory. The boys on the show don't get laid in spite of their geekiness, they get laid pretty much because of it.
    • The Tag Line is "Smart is the new sexy."
    • In one episode Leonard shows Penny what he does in his laser lab. It's been implied that Penny's never actually seen his work, either due to lack of interest or a fear that she just won't understand it. Once Leonard demonstrates it for her (along with a Carl Sagan-esque monologue about the beauty and complexity of the universe), Penny promptly tears his clothes off.
    • The show didn't pick up on this right away though; their nerdiness was presented as an obstacle to their getting laid at first.
    • In an early episode (thus long before Amy comes along), there is a girl who becomes kind of Sheldon's groupie, because she admires his scientific work and his intelligence. At one point she reveals to Penny that she is indeed also in a non-platonic way attracted to Sheldon, but deliberately restrains herself so that Sheldon's brilliant mind can be entirely devoted to his work, without any distractions.
  • Bones:
    • Seeley Booth falls for the series main character, Temperance "Bones" Brennan, a female nerd.
    • Angela Montenegro and Jack Hodgins, two nerdy characters working in under Dr Brennan, marry halfway the series.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Xander, Willow, and Wesley are all sexy nerds in their way, but it's Giles who's sexy because he's a nerd (or, as a love interest put it, "a sexy fuddy-duddy").
    • Later lampshaded when even Tara and Willow, both lesbians, find Giles singing "Behind Blue Eyes" incredibly sexy.
      Willow: Now I remember why I had such a crush on him.
    • Played with later in the series when Xander comments that smart girls are hot, and Willow, who at that point is a lesbian, mournfully asks him why he couldn't have figured that out when they were in 10th grade (i.e. during the time Willow had the hots for Xander).
  • Dr. Spencer Reid of Criminal Minds graduated from high school at 12, had two BAs by 16, has an IQ of 187, and an eidetic memory. In one episode, fellow profiler Hotch mentions that he "was propositioned by every prostitute we talked to."
    • It becomes something of a running gag that sex workers hit on Reid.
  • Degrassi: When Connor and Dave created a sorting algorithm deciding the hottest girl in Degrassi, Clare is ranked 3rd. Pretty good given she's supposed to be the plain jane girl next door type.
    • Before that, Damian once referred to Liberty as a "sexy genius."
  • Doctor Who:
  • Eureka is this in a nutshell, seeing as Eureka is a town full of super geniuses/nerds. Good examples are Zane and Henry. Claudia Donovan counts if you include both Warehouse 13/Eureka crossovers.
  • In Gilmore Girls, there's an episode where Rory is seen sitting in the college cafeteria wearing a t-shirt with the logo, "Reading is Sexy." Considering she wears it while thinking about Logan, the third guy in the series she's attracted to for his intellect, it is a reflection of what she honestly believes.
  • Lampshaded in The IT Crowd when Roy and Moss make a Nerds Are Sexy calendar and it ends up being less "hot supermodel with glasses" and more "fat bloke with his shirt off".
  • From the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, we have Billy Cranston, the original Blue Ranger, who got more romantic subplots than pretty much any Ranger in the history of the franchise (damn) but was played by David Yost, who is incredibly charming and built like a plow horse.
  • Modern Family: Alex is normally overshadowed by her more traditionally beautiful older sister, but when a bunch of nerdy bullies are picking on her brother, she lets her hair down and resolves the situation in seconds.
    Haley: ...what the hell was that?
    Alex: You have your fans, I have mine. And one day, your fans are going to work for my fans.
  • In the NCIS episode "Singled Out", the team was looking for a killer who believed in this trope, and Ziva goes undercover as a nerd in an attempt to identify him.
    • This also comes into play with just about every girl who falls for "Timmy" McGee, annoying the hell out of Tony.
  • On NUMB3RS, Charlie asks Amita on their first date after she solves a particularly tricky mathematical analysis. Later they find out that math is really all they have to talk about, but this doesn't seem to be a problem since they're still together.
    • And FBI agent Megan has a relationship with professor Larry.
    • Ahem, "Luckily, I speak l33t," "That's so hot."
  • Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation is into math, model trains, skinny ties, plaid shirts, and Game of Thrones, but that doesn't stop Leslie Knope, Shauna Malwae-Tweep, Marlene Griggs-Knope, and Joan Callamezzo from hitting on/chasing after him.
  • Sherlock gets some of this too. "Brainy is the new sexy" indeed...
  • The Smallville episode "Crusade" is when we first met Lois Lane. After Martha says "Trust me, that can happen to the best of us" about falling for a "farm-boy type", Lois replies "Not me, give me a nerd with glasses any day of the week."
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • The show presents an Alternate Reality Episode in which Samantha Carter is a frumpy, awkward nerd. Alternate O'Neill still thinks she's hot.
    • In the main Stargate-verse, Daniel Jackson is paired up (or at least implied to have paired up) more often than anyone else in the series. O'Neill even comments on this once.
      O'Neill: Man, that kid's got a way with women.
  • Supernatural:
    • Castiel, despite being labeled in-universe as "nerd angel", is also referred to as "sexy" and "pretty" by demon, angel, and human alike.
    • Sam Winchester fits this trope almost too well.
  • Ugly Betty gets a lot of it. The title character may be cute and even beautiful upon certain occasions, but her sexy turns on only in the last few episodes of the series. Most of her boyfriends are often the embodiment of the trope, with nerdy accountant Henry having some serious male model-like body going for him.
  • David Henrie, who plays Justin, in Wizards of Waverly Place. He's the nerdy boy that builds robots, collects action figures, and can't do more pull-ups than his younger sister. Surprisingly (or not), in the show he has a lot of girlfriends.
    • Zeke is also a nice looking nerd. In an episode, dozens of supermodels want to play "Dungeons and Dragons" with him and Justin, rather than parade on the stage.
  • As Scully of The X-Files says of the two scientists in "War of the Coprophages" who walk off into the sunrise together: "Smart is sexy".

    Music 
  • Malcolm McLaren's song "Algernon's Simply Awfully Good At Algebra".
  • The whole point of "Geek and Gamer Girls", a parody of Katy Perry's "California Gurlz" by Team Unicorn. For that matter it's pretty much the whole point of Team Unicorn.

    Myths & Religion 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Cyberpunk: Alt Cunningham was a lingerie model as well as a once-in-a-lifetime rockstar netrunner and programmer, but it is also made quite clear that Alt's appearance was not a result of winning the genetic lottery, but rather of spending several "startup stock options from Amazon"-size paychecks on biosculpting, plastic surgery, cosmetic cyberware and gene therapy in order to indulge her desire to be beautiful, and her modelling career was less about the money than making the world acknowledge that she had succeeded.

    Video Games 
  • Bespectacled astrophysics student-turned-time-traveling ninja Sasuke Sarutobi of Ikemen Sengoku is one of the game's romanceable guys. In his route, the female main character falls for him not just because of his kindness, quirky sense of humor, and sincere desire to make her happy, but also because of his intelligence and unquenchable thirst of learning that he's more than happy to let her participate in. She even admits to him in one ending that she was disappointed he didn't stay dressed in his lab coat for their date.
  • Mass Effect has Quarian Machinist Tali'Zorah, who not only receives positive attention from Joker, Javik, Kenneth Donnelly, and Kal'Reegar, but has two potential love interests. Namely M!Shepard and Garrus. Mass Effect: Andromeda has Dr. Suvi Anwar, one of the romance options for Sara Ryder (but not Scott), who is incredibly brilliant (it's hinted she was nearly headhunted by Cerberus, but smart enough to decline) when she's not being a bit of a moon unit.
  • MySims Agents, in an example of the sentiment, has a music-playing object that plays a little tune called "Nerdy Chicks Rule".
  • Namco High: If you do the Tomari romance, Cousin starts out finding him "cute", then nearly melts from raw hotness when he gets his glasses back.
  • Cyrus from Octopath Traveler is a handsome and charming scholar who is also hilariously completely oblivious to the gushing of women around him. He even manages to get Primrose to like him, and seducing people is her entire job. She herself points out that women find intellectual men like him attractive, but she can't figure out if he is trolling or genuinely guileless and doesn't understand the signals he sends out.
  • Super Robot Wars's Ryusei Date is the epitome of otakuness, having more interest in the features of whichever Fembot was currently in the hangar than real girls. Nevertheless, Latooni Subota and Mai Kobayashi fall for him, the former going as far as imitating his geeky speech out of affection. Ryusei himself doesn't seem to mind, though.
  • Philia Felice from Tales of Destiny is a really nerdy priestess, complete with nerd glasses, who has a penchant of inventing self-made bombs. However, that turns out to be one of her charms (she also admits that she's plain looking without her glasses), including her nice personality as well as her voice.
  • Team Fortress 2: In the 15-minute short Expiration Date, Scout explains that this is the reason behind his long-standing crush on the team's secretary/assistant/cleaner Miss Pauling. He describes her as a classy lady who smells nice, reads, and always has her glasses on a little crooked...

    Webcomics 
  • El Goonish Shive: Tedd Verres is A) a huge nerd, and B) sexy as hell. Notably, his girlfriend Grace specifically calls his research into magic "sexy and important".
  • Girl Genius is basically Gold Digger set in a Steampunk fantasy universe instead of a superheroic modern Earth, and the main character, Agatha Clay, is less ... "friendly" than Gina Diggers.
  • Sollux Captor from Homestuck, a skilled hacker and programmer, is a notable ladies magnet, to the consternation of Eridan when he starts dating Eridan's crush Feferi Peixes.
  • Loserz has a few sexy losers:
  • Nerd & Jock: Tiger has a huge crush on Nerd, to the point that anything he does that is slightly cute makes her blush, and anything hot (such as him taking his top off) completely impedes her ability to think. The two are currently serving as the trope image.
  • In Sandra and Woo, Larisa's sudden attraction to Landon seems like just a joke. It's not.
  • Donovan from Silver Bullet Nights. He's short, wears old-fashioned glasses and talks like a middle-aged professor. Despite this, he has no problem picking up a tall, dark and handsome stranger. Of course, it helps that Donovan is attractive in a nerdy sort of way. Kind of geek-meets-twink.
  • Fuchsia of Sinfest certainly thinks so, if her portraits of Criminy are any indication.
  • In Sunstone, Ally and Alan are complete geeks over fighting games, and both are sexualised. Ally even attends conventions and cosplays. Moreover Lisa speculates that all practitioners of BDSM are in a way nerds, because (as the comic shows) the advanced stuff uses so much thought and attention to be done safely you naturally have to be an enthusiast type.
  • Moira and Nanetta in Tales Of Gnosis College both seem to fit this trope.
  • Times Like This: Cassie, the main character, is a brainiac with a mean sex drive. When she's not banging famous guys throughout history thanks to her self-made time machine, she's sneaking boyfriends into her workplace for some conference-table whoopee.

    Web Original 
  • Tales of MU takes this to the logical extreme — Amaranth is a physically perfect nymph, naked except for her glasses, who believes in science in a world of magic-based technology. Beyond the mere nudism, nymphs in MU follow the more open version in regards to sex and sexuality (the ultimate origin of the term nymphomania) — although Amaranth treats it as an enjoyable part-time job/chore more than anything.
    • It's later discovered this is because of a teenage geek messing with the process that created her, creating the ultimate geek fantasy girl — a confident, polite nudist who will put up with ANYTHING and literally can't get enough sex. Oh, and she's a geek, too. Unfortunately, he was too shy to talk to her afterward, which left her in the dark about the whole thing.
  • Hephaestos in Thalia's Musings. Also all of the Muses, Thalia included, Athena, Apollo, and Aglaia are very smart and well educated. But being gods they also are exceedingly attractive.
  • Whateley Universe: brilliant inventor Spark is pursued by Reach throughout the story "The Big Idea". Genius inventor Bugs on the other hand, is regarded as one of the sexiest girls in Superhero School Whateley Academy.

    Web Videos 
  • CollegeHumor has the skit "I'm Such a Nerd,", in which a nerd happily discovers that the rather attractive girl he's dating is herself a giant nerd... who then promptly dumps him for not being nerdy enough.
    Girl: I thought he was different, you know, but he wasn't. He...he couldn't even name all of the current Batman titles!

    Western Animation 
  • Steve Smith from American Dad!. He manages to get dates with girls more popular than him because they find him cute. Something always happens to ruin it for him, however—usually Stan or Roger.
  • In the episode of Batman: The Animated Series where the Riddler reforms (or rather, attempts to), he ends up with quite a few women fawning over him. Unless that's an example of All Girls Want Bad Boys, or Power is Sexy and/or Gold Digger, due to his newfound fame and wealth from his inventions.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Eddward "Edd" (better known as "Double D" because of the way his name is spelled), who's easily the most popular character in the series, has had more girls go after than any other male character on the show.
    • There's Marie Kanker, one of the Kanker Sisters who is Double D's usual Stalker with a Crush.
    • Ed's younger sister, Sarah, has a Precocious Crush on Double D.
    • Nazz kissed Double D on the cheek in "The Day the Ed Stood Still" and pulled him into a dance in "May I Have This Ed?" Plus, Double D was the only boy outside of Kevin that Nazz ever really expressed a romantic interest in.
    • Marie's sister, May, had a lot of Ship Tease with Double D is the series' Valentine's Day-special (even if it was only because they fell in love due being struck with love-arrows from Cupid-Sarah and Cupid-Jimmy). At the end of the special, he keeps the Valentine's Day-card she obliviously made for him after they were struck by the arrows as he read it consciously with silent joy.
  • Winston Dunsworth from The Fairly OddParents! had this appeal In-Universe in the episode "A Bad Case Of Diary-Uh!" with teenage girls who attended Vicky's high school.
  • Family Guy nerd Neil dates Cicillia, who thinks his psoriasis is sexy.
  • The Mask:
    • Stanley Ipkiss is shy and nebbish but some girls go over to him because of it.
    • The Mask is too strong and wild but most girls who are put off by him can see that he is cute, kind, sweet, well-mannered and polite gentleman who can also be a nerd as well as he transforms into different forms that mostly are from pop culture, which also makes him a fan of it as well, like Stanley.
    • Evelyn is shy and bookish but Stanley finds her attractive because of these things that leads them to make a date at Stanley's apartment.
    • Eve finds Stanley very attractive like the girls do with him so she falls in love with him at first sight and Stanley does admit that he does find her a cute, polite, kind and good-hearted woman who is also very attractive as well which does lead him to consider to let her be around for a while but then wonders what their children will be like among other reasons as well so he decides not to let her be around for a while even if he feels guilty for taking her face off.
  • In The Real Ghostbusters, Janine has a crush on nerdy Egon for his high intelligence. So do a handful of minor female characters. Janine's crush was a holdover from the movie where she is quite blatantly hitting on Egon, and Egon is either clueless or doing a good job pretending he's clueless.
  • Used in an episode of Robot Chicken. After seeing hell freeze over we are treated to a nerd dancing around in his underwear, gleefully singing about getting laid (mis-spelling laid as layed as he does so). The hot girl in bed states, in a rather matter of fact manner, that she thinks nerds are hot.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Whereas the previous incarnations of Velma's character were Hollywood Pudgy, "Mystery Incorporated" slimmed down her figure and portrayed her as being sexually aggressive. Shaggy even dated hernote  and had to admit she was the one thing he'd choose over food. And for a Big Eater like Shaggy, that's literally saying a mouthful!
  • The Simpsons: Artie Ziff was considered the hottest guy in school and popular among the ladies despite having the look of a stereotypical nerd.
  • Tecna from Winx Club, though her boyfriend is even more of a nerd than she is.

Alternative Title(s): Geeks Are Sexy

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